A growing concern in elementary schools is how to bridge the gap between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) so that limited-English-proficient (LEP) children may participate fully in an academic environment. However, many of the innovations in teaching children ESL have focused on the development of oral language (BICS) while neglecting innovations in literacy practices (CALP). If LEP students are to participate fully in an academic environment, they must be literate. Therefore, the development of reading comprehension skills is viewed as essential. / This study examined the cognitive span of questioning, i.e., levels of questioning, in ESL and L1 reading materials according to Barrett's taxonomy of reading comprehension skills, compared the levels of questioning following ESL reading passages with those following L1 reading passages, and analyzed the results of this comparison to determine whether a source of inadequate ESL reading comprehension skills exists. / The materials selected for this study included all Florida adopted series for ESOL grades K-6 (24 texts) and all adopted series for Reading, Basal Programs, grades 1, 3 and 5 (67 texts). A systematic sampling of reading comprehension questions and tasks were classified using the Barrett Taxonomy of Reading Comprehension. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to report and analyze findings. Total numbers of items classified into the four levels of the taxonomy, into each subcategory of the taxonomy, and for each publisher and text in a program were reported for ESOL and basal texts. The scale of measurement for all variables was nominal. / Analysis of the data revealed significant differences in levels of questioning between the ESOL and basal reading series, with the ESOL series containing a very limited number of higher-level tasks. This gap between the comprehension tasks required in the ESL reading class and the mainstream reading class might be a factor in overall literacy levels and/or in the cognitive rigors of the two sets of language arts materials. If ESL reading comprehension instruction could parallel the requirements of the L1 reading curriculum, the legislatively mandated need for ESL students to be mainstreamed might be more effectively and efficiently achieved. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-05, Section: A, page: 1162. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76102 |
Contributors | TAYLOR, CAROL ANN., Florida State University |
Source Sets | Florida State University |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Text |
Format | 134 p. |
Rights | On campus use only. |
Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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